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#351 - Self Help (Yourself)

I write the first half of this Column from a position of privilege. Actually I write every Column from that position, now that I think about it. Regardless, this is all very personal and I can say up front that I know it's not this simple, this is all very easy for me to say, and what good does it do? Part of me thought about just deleting this, but heck I wrote it so here it is.I don't really understand smart people who aren't happy.If you're smart, you should be able to identify cause and effect relationships. You should be good at noticing patterns and trends. You should have a good idea about what toolsets are available to you and how to use them to create effective change. Happiness, to me, seems like a key metric that most people are trying to maximize in their lives... and smart people are supposed to be good at tweaking dials to solve problems. Combining those two strongly-held beliefs, it doesn't seem like smart, unhappy people should be common. Why is it that smartest people are some of the most capable of making stupidest life choices?
I feel like I should throw a caveat in here that, although I'm thinking about a couple people I've met in my life in particular, there's a 0% chance if you're reading this it's you. I haven't seen or spoken to these acquaintances-at-best in many years.

On a related note - I think the notion of a "self-help book" is paradoxical. If you're reading a self-help book, you're getting help from someone else. If you're reading a book because you thought "you know, I enjoy reading books. Reading makes me happy and I'm going to do that." - THEN you're self-helping. You should know yourself best, and what makes people happy is unique to them... or it should be for anything that's not as obvious as "eat right, sleep well, keep everything in balance."

I dunno. Who the hell am I to say any of these things. Like I know better than other people. I'm just a guy who hasn't struggled much addressing these sorts of things in the past. I have been given the space and the time to define who I am and what makes me happy. I've had great mentors to show me the way... and I got lucky with the person I fell in love with in that she helps me to become the best version of me that I want to be. I like to think I somehow earned all that, but really it was just luck combined with a very self-centered approach to everything.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!

Seriously. Here's a picture of a bottle of mouthwash so you can forget what I was just talking about and go on reading the rest.

My Nexus 6p is getting a bit long in the tooth. Its battery isn't lasting like it once was. The lag is real. Ever since I saw the bezel-less iPhone X, I've had a hard time not noticing how gigantic the chin and forehead of my phone. It's three years old at this point - so I've been looking at the rumor mill... and it's not an easy pick.
Let's look at the options:

The iPhone XS (or XS Plus), hasn't technically been announced yet - but based off the leaks this thing looks pretty sleek. This will be king of the crop for another year, but will be priced as such.

The Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL also haven't been announced yet, but they've been leaked more than any smartphone in memory. I'll be shocked if there's anything we learn about it next month. The Pixel 3 XL has a stupidly large notch, and still has a chin bezel. I'm sure the rest of the phone will be fine, but man it seems like the worst design-by-committee I've seen from anything Google's made. The smaller Pixel 3 is a possibility, it has bezels on both sides and has a smaller, lower-res screen than my current phone. Despite those facts, it's the biggest contender against me going iPhone.

The iPhone X is going to be a year old and will still (probably) cost an arm and a leg... however this could be the direction we go if they're cheap.

The Pixel 2 (or Pixel 2 XL) is going to be a year old immediately and has a questionable screen with large bezels. The future is bezeless. These are not.

Time will tell.

Top 5: Pros of Switching to the iPhone5. From what I've seen, the iPhone offers a smoother experience than any Android phone. Applications themselves are better on average, and the OS itself seems to flow smoother.4. There doesn't seem to be an Android phone that's worth upgrading to. The iPhone is an incredible piece of hardware that has no worthy Android rival from what I can see.3. There are things I don't know about the switch that I'm sure to love.2. Switching to a lightning charger means Melissa and I could swap phones on a single charger.1. Apple's Health app is much closer aligned with the type of tracking than I like doing than Google's Fit app. Google Fit has always been a halfhearted endeavor at bestbb.

Top 5: Cons of Switching to the iPhone5. I don't plan to switch over to Apple services. So I'd have an iPhone and use Google Drive, Google Keep, the Google Assistant, and the Chrome browser.4. I've spent some money on various applications that I'd no longer be using. There are some applications I'd have to re-buy.3. There are things I don't know about the switchthat I'm sure to hate.2. Switching to a lightning charger means my phone would no longer use the same charger as my laptop, GoPro, & Nintendo Switch1. The Life Tracker to Google Fit integration would break. I'd have to manually enter sleep, food, and exercise data into the life tracker until I figured out how to get something working through iOS (which would probably require me to develop and install my own apple app).

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